VANCOUVER, BC -The University of British Columbia recently opened its $34 million Bioenergy Research and Demonstration Facility (BRDF), a "living laboratory" that will burn tree trimmings and wood chips to produce clean heat and electricity for its campus.

University officials said the BRDF has the capacity to generate enough electricity to power 1,500 homes and will supplant up to 12 percent of UBC's dependence on natural gas for heat. In addition, UBC said the BRDF will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 9 percent, which it said is like removing 1,000 cars from the road.

The BRDF was developed in partnership with Nexterra Systems Corporation and GE. It is the first commercial demonstration of a new application that combines Nexterra’s gasification and syngas cleaning technologies with GE’s Jenbacher engines.

“This exciting facility targets a major challenge facing society – the need for new, clean energy solutions that work at a community scale,” said UBC President Stephen Toope. “This is a flagship example of UBC as a living laboratory, where researchers, staff, students and partners collaborate on innovations targeting the pressing challenges of our day.”

The four-story, 20,450-square-foot facility is the first North American commercial application of cross-laminated-timber (CLT), a solid wood building system adapted for British Columbia lumber and manufactured in BC facilities.